Math Error Means School Tax Bills May Jump $150

Despite the fact that the Pottsgrove School Board has adopted a budget that doesn't raise taxes, property taxes may go up anyway due to a screw-up in Harrisburg.

If the error turns out to be confirmed, it will affect all school property tax bills in Pennsylvania, not just in Pottsgrove.

Business Manager David Nester informed the board that he is hearing there is an error made by the Pennsylvania Budget Secretary in calculating casino revenues. That funding provides tax relief by cutting the tax bill of every registered homestead and farmstead in the district by about $299, Nester said.

Since the homestead exemption was first created as part of the Act 1 tax reform in 2006, the district has received a constant amount of $1.5 million.

As happens every year, Nester said his office was notified May 1 that the revenues from casino gambling had been certified at $621 million.

"Last week we were notified that the Pennsylvania Budget Secretary was going to re-certify the amount," Nester told the Pottsgrove School Board last night.

"Now I'm hearing that it may be reduced by $300 million, which would mean we would lose about $770,000 and that works out to about $150 per house," Nester said.

None of this has been confirmed yet, said Nester, observing, "I'm having a hard time believing they made a $300 million calculation error."

"This information is moving fast and I think I'll be getting a day-by-day or even hour-by-hour update, he said.

Unlike property taxes, the homestead exemption doles out tax relief equally among homesteads and farmsteads, no matter what the property assessment is. Thus a shortfall would hit all equally.

"Every time I hear it, it makes more sense and I get even angrier," said Pottsgrove Superintendent William Shirk, mentioning the many sacrifices that had been made to deliver a budget that does not raise taxes in the coming school year.

The only way to ensure Pottsgrove taxpayers get the tax bill they were expecting, Nester said, "would be for us to lower taxes and then we would incur the loss instead of the taxpayer."

School Board President Robert Lindgren offered up the opinion that "I don't think that's the end of the bad news."

He said the state budget is likely to be as deeply affected by the statewide three-month shut down of businesses in order to stem the growth of the coronavirus pandemic.

"I know the governor opened up middle part of the state with his code yellow, but we don't make money in the middle of the state," Lindgren said.

"We make money in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia and until we open up those areas, the budget hole for this year will continue to grow and continue to be a disaster," he said.

Nester said he is hearing that state subsidies for school districts will be the same as last year, and that district's would be able to keep money obtained through the federal CARES act.

"I hope you are right and I am wrong, I really do," Lindgren replied.

The news followed comments by Shirk, and Nester's news provided ample evidence, of the difficulties school districts are having planning for the coming school year.

The rules, and information, change almost daily "and there are a lot of different moving pieces," he said.

That includes whether the school district will continue to provide food over the summer as it has since March. Shirk said there will be at least two more weeks of meals, but beyond that remains an open question.

His office plans to issue a district-wide survey to parents next week trying to get a sense of how, or if, they want to see schools open in the fall.

What would the community be willing to accept regarding buses, virtual learning versus face-to-face learning, special education. "We want to get a sense of what they're comfortable with."

Rather than wait until mid-July when discussion of plans for the coming school year are often begun, Shirk said some decisions will have to start being made as soon as two weeks from now.

Shirk noted that there is some talk of re-opening schools "with social distancing," which Lindgren called "the worst kind of possible answer."

That would mean classes with 10 students, not 30, which could only be obtained with multiple bus trips every day, or a combination of virtual and actual classroom experience.

"How do you maintain social distancing in the halls when you have 1,000 kids in the high school trying to get from one of the building to the other in four minutes?"

"Maybe that sounds good in Harrisburg, but it doesn't work," Lindgren said.

"The money needed to match this model doesn't exist," said Shirk. "We have to work within the confines of what we have."

Lindgren said he believes schools should open in the fall as normal, "with no social distancing."

He holds this belief, he said, because of the example of the USS Roosevelt, the aircraft carrier that came back to port because so many of its sailors had contracted coronavirus.

"There are about 4,800 sailors on an aircraft carrier at sea," said Lindgren, who is an officer in the naval reserves and served in Afghanistan.

"When all was said and done, 23 percent of those sailors had the disease, which is 1,123. Of those, seven were actually hospitalized and of those, one died. That's what happens with this age group of 24 and younger," Lindgren said.

"Generally, they are not at risk and then everyone says they don't want to put people at higher risk exposed, well that's who should have been quarantined in the first place," he said.

"That is what the science tells us to do," Lindgren said. "That's the conclusion you reach when you think logically and don't let fear guide your decisions."

U Pottsgrove Budget, Raised as Campaign Issue, to Remain Hidden Until After Voters Go to the Polls

There is nothing more central to the idea of local government elections than the municipal budget and the taxes is generates. It is perhaps the nearest citizens get to having a measuring stick against which judge the performance of incumbents and the promises of challengers.

Usually, it's the taxes that are the focus of outrage in an election, but this year one of the key points of contention in this year's Upper Pottsgrove race is the budget itself.

One candidate, Democratic incumbent Elwood Taylor, has argued in multiple Facebook posts that the budgeting during his tenure has been cautious and conservative and built a surplus.

The Republican candidates, Cathy Paretti and Dave Waldt, are insisting that revenues have been repeatedly over-estimated and that surpluses have been counted in the revenues column where they do not belong.

This is good.

A debate about the budget is just the kind of thing people should be discussing in a local election and there has been plenty of intelligent questioning and discussion on the Facebook posts of the rival candidates.

What's bad is that an opportunity for the public to get a look at the first budget draft BEFORE the election, and thus be provided with a set of facts which would allow voters to decide which perspective was most accurate, has been removed for no clear reason.

Trace Slinkerd, the president of the board of commissioners, and Commissioner Renee Spaide have  sided with their fellow Republicans in this debate Both signed a letter, paid for by the area Republican Committee and sent to voters, that makes prior budgets one of the central themes of the campaign.

The letter signed by Spinkerd and Spaide states: "In our first year (of majority control) we re-structured the budget process to properly place revenues against expenses for the 2019 budget."

"We are working to bring our budget process into a four-year plan to avoid exhausting our reserves in three to four years," they wrote.

Sounds good. Let's have a look BEFORE the voting begins. Don't tell the voters, SHOW the voters.

Nope. Not gonna happen.

Traditionally, the Upper Pottsgrove Commissioners have held a budget meeting BEFORE the election, giving voters an opportunity to get informed about the pending taxes and sewer costs and hold accountable the officials they are about to elect or reject.

That has changed this year.

Slinkerd, who has spearheaded the effort to get Taylor booted from the planning commission, moved Monday's budget meeting until after the election.

Why?

Contacted after 9 p.m. Monday Slinkerd responded to my question via email.

"The working session was adjusted because it is the day before the election and folks are busy. We still wanted to talk budget numbers in a working setting so we picked a different date."

Given that explanation, I remain puzzled.

If the budget was truly the hot mess the Republicans claim it to be, why not showcase their better budgeting BEFORE the election and let voters see their expertise? What a great opportunity to show the voters the truth of your claims.

Commissioner Martin Schreiber, who is not a candidate this year, wrote on Facebook that "this is the first time the BOC (board of commissioners) meeting has ever been cancelled the day before the election."

He also wrote, "I heard the president of the board did not feel it was right to have the meeting the day before election day."

I would argue the opposite.

Having the budget and any tax increase, or the absence of one, made public before the election is the epitome of government transparency. Moving it until after the election denies voters access to accurate information needed to make an informed choice at the polls.

Garage Bids Rejected, No Tax Hike, Insect Invaders

Township commissioners made it official Monday night, rejecting all bids for the new $2 million public works facility at Heather Place.

Commissioners Chairman Elwood Taylor cast the only no vote.

He said characterizations of him being disappointed by the outcry from the Oct. 2 meeting at which many residents spoke out against the project were inaccurate. He said the township had been exploring the issue for many years and this was the outcome and he supports the process.

Nevertheless, Taylor said he looks forward to the alternatives produced by a committee of residents who volunteered to look into the matter.

Discussion of the township budget also indicated that in its current draft form, no tax hike is anticipated, although there was some spirited discussion about the annual cost of sewer service, voiced mostly by the audience.

And our friends in the insect family are really bugging folks in Upper Pottsgrove.

Township Manager Carol Lewis said the township is receiving lots of complaints about the invasive species spotted lantern fly, which comes here by way of Korea and is a danger to trees.

Commissioner France Kazalkovich, who lives in a townhouse development said "I have exactly one tree on my property, and it was covered from top to bottom with these things."

State Sen. Judy Schwank, D-11th Dist., will hold a hearing on this threat on Wednesday, at 9 a.m. and the hearing will be livestreamed on her web site (click here).

In the meantime, Lewis is pursuing a PECO grant to replace the ash trees on public property the township is expected to lose (those that were not harvested for lumber) to another invasive insect, the emerald ash borer.

Before I release you to revel in the live Tweets from the meeting, I would be remiss if I did not share a new term Township Solicitor Charles D. Garner Jr. invented, which talking about the intersection of the zoning ordinance as it relates to farm animals, and the animal control ordinance adopted this year -- "horse densities."

Evidently it relates to a "horses-per-acre" ratio, and not a measure of how dense your horse may be.

And without further ado, here are the Tweets:

And the Mural of the Story Is ... A New Law

For all of you who were hoping for a dramatic last minute change of heart on the ongoing sage of borough council's vital mural law debate, only Councilman Joe Kirkland provided some drama when he changed his vote to oppose it.

After all, this is borough council, not a Disney movie.

Having dealt with this interesting but ultimately secondary concern, council moved forward with the single most important thing it does each year the budget.

No, I'm just kidding.

Council President and Finance Committee member Dan Weand said there had been some discussion about ways to cut costs and increase revenues, but he couldn't discuss them because .... well, to be honest that was not entirely clear.

I suppose we should just rest assured its in capable hands.

But Council member Dennis Arms isn't so sure. He noted that he has provided several suggestions to cut costs but they are all still in the draft budget. He did not specify other than to say "we're still spending $100 a month for "plant-scaping here in borough hall. I don't need to see plants when I come in to pay my $300 water bill.

And Council Vice President Sheryl Miller, who has refused Weand's request that she resign from the finance committee, said engineering costs from the borough authority's engineering form, BCM, "put us over-budget in 2016. It is every council member's responsibility to be looking at this budget, not just the finance committee."

Arms also agitated for more discussion about replacing retiring Borough Manager Mark Flanders, who steps down at the end of December.

Mayor Sharon Thomas suggested a transition team that puts Assistant Borough Manager Justin Keller in the job now to save time and money. "I've been through this a few times and we always spend a lot of money to decide we need to hire from within," she said.

A rendering of the homes proposed for the 500 block of Lincoln Ave.

There was a surprise visit from the Governor's Office of Local Government, who responded to Miller's call for a review of salaries and operations saying that is what was done in 2007 and the office remained available to undertake another.

In other news, council undertook a conditional use hearing for a proposal to build six attached single family homes in the 500 block of Lincoln Avenue.

And a review of the proposed land bank law, which council voted to advertise, with only Arms voting against.

With that, here are the Tweets.

Murals, Manager Search But Little Budget Talk

You might never know that council is wrestling with a potential 23 percent tax hike if you had attended last night's council meeting, or are lucky enough to see it on PCTV.

That's because it was hardly mentioned.

"I want to know what they are doing about the budget, not about murals," one resident told this reporter.

He had a point.

At this point, the budget is being handled in the finance committee, whose meetings are public, but whose schedule is difficult to find on the borough web site.

And all we learned about that Wednesday night is that Council President Dan Weand asked Vice President Sheryl Miller to resign from it. He said he had heard from constituents that because she is not running for reelection, she will not have to live with the consequences of the recommendations it makes to council.

Miller, not one to take such affronts lying down, refused and said her constituents had urged her to stay on and noted that if Weand loses the election in November, he should also immediately step down from the committee given he also will not have to live with the consequences as a council member, just as a taxpayer like Miller.

"Sounds right," said Weand, who later told a reporter that as council president, he has the right to appoint or remove committee members at will, and he was trying to be polite. He declined to say .

All of which makes for lovely gossip and an eye into the power politics and priorities of some of our council members, but does little to close a $2 million budget gap.

To be fair, there were some ideas floated. Miller is still pushing for a professional review of borough operations and salaries and said a new borough manager should not be chosen until that review -- on which no one else has agreed -- is finished.

She said the finance department needs to keep a better eye on trends, like health care costs and dropping property assessments, and plan accordingly, and then added that first responders should not be cut. It is perhaps relevant here to mention that the police department consumes more than half the borough's general fund.

Kind of hard to have a serious discussion about the budget when the first thing you do is take half of it off the table for discussion.

And Mayor Sharon Thomas suggested that rather than hire a new borough manager, that Assistant Borough Manager Justin Keller be promoted and do both his and Flanders' job for the same salary.

If Pottstown holds to its usual course, having predicted doom, a final budget which contains a tax hike, but a smaller one, will be presented to council in November as a fait accompli -- most likely AFTER the election -- with little time for discussion or innovation.

But with three of four council seats un-opposed, why would anything change?

And, because this is Pottstown, we talked more about murals.

Sigh.

But there was a good idea floated by a resident, Lisa Mueller. She was responding to the notion that a third party can be assigned the maintenance responsibility for a mural which has been the sticking point from the beginning for a particular property owner.

And she suggested that perhaps the borough could form a public arts council that would vet mural proposals as well as take responsibility for maintenance.

That actually sounds like a pretty great idea, so long as we can avoid the usual Pottstown tendency to let WHO gets chosen devolve into a pissing contest.

And with that, I present to you, The Tweets:

Pottstown Council 'Ties' Down Budget After 4 Votes

Sure, budgets are serious business.

And we'll get to it in a minute.

But it's also the holiday season and that means, it's time for holiday ties!

Borough Solicitor Charles Garner Jr., left, and Borough Manager Mark Flanders, right, are known for their once-a-year holiday attire.

Sorry, but I couldn't resist.

Anyhoo, as you may have guessed, borough council muddled its way through a budget vote Monday night, adopting a last minute option that no one had heard before tonight.

It raises taxes slightly, 0.29%, and preserves an administrative job primarily by delaying the hiring of a new police officer until later into 2017.

It took four votes to get there, but you can read all about this like it was live, by reading the live Tweets below!

Borough Council Faces four Budget Options

Photos by Evan Brandt

When borough council takes to the dias Monday night, its members will face a choice among four budget options.

According to Borough Manager Mark Flanders, the first option is for council to adopt the budget it advertised, which raises taxes 3.49 percent and is an annual increase of $29.68 on a property assessed at $85,000 -- the borough median.

The second choice is to vote on a budget that only raises taxes by 1.24 percent, which represents an annual increase of only $10.51 on the median tax bill. It is an option achieved by making some changes to which funds certain costs are assigned, Flanders said.

And finally, said Flanders, council can achieve a zero tax hike by not filling a soon-to-be vacant position on the police force, and eliminating an administrative position in the Human Resources department.

But Council Vice President Sheryl Miller doesn't like those options, so she presented a fourth; that a new police officer be hired but the administrative position be eliminated.

"We can't afford to reduce the police force," said Miller.

She said that would result in an annual increase of $8.86 for an assessment of $85,000, but that could not be confirmed Wednesday night by Finance Director Janice Lee.

Flanders warned against allowing the gap between revenues and expenses to continue expanding, particularly as it relates to not putting money into the borough's capital fund.

And Council President Dan Weand noted that "an organizations greatest asset is its people. Maybe you can cut back on salt or something, but once you start cutting back on people, work doesn't get done."

From left, Police Captain Robert Thomas and Chaplain
Everett Debnam, 

congratulate Rommell and Deavona Robinson
for the award just 

presented by Mayor Sharon Thomas and
Police Chief Rick Drumheller. 

Mayor Sharon Thomas noted that whichever budget council ultimately adopts, it pales in comparison to the 11 percent tax hike now being proposed by the Montgomery County Commissioners.

On a happier note, council also recognized Rommell and Deavona Robinson with a Civilian Service Award for saving the life of someone apparently suffering from an over-dose.

It happened in October and, according to Thomas, the victim was found not breathing and without a pulse, but the couple immediately began CPR and saved the victim's life.

"I mean we showed up when we got the call, but they are the people who saved this person's life," said Police Chief Rick Drumheller.

There were some other items of interest -- such as Miller's suggestion that Jeff Chomnuk not be re-appointed to the Pottstown Borough Authority because of how she was treated when she was late with a bill.

We all hope this has nothing to do with the two running against each other for the Third Ward seat on borough council three years ago.

That said, here are the Tweets...

A 0% Tax Hike and A Math Fight in Pottsgrove

Normally, a zero percent tax hike and an attempt to actually LOWER taxes would be the headline item from a nearly four-hour school board meeting that tested the patience and bladders of several school board members.

And it is. Look, it's the first thing in this headline.

But we here at Digital Notebook tower would be denying human nature if we tried to pretend that's all that happened last night.

There has been a slow-burning fire on the Pottsgrove School Board since last year about  the district's less-than-stellar math scores and last night, Daniel Vorhis, whose name I appear to be doomed to forever misspell on Twitter, gave an update on the district's progress.

It did not go well.

School Board President Rick Rabinowitz and board members Al Leach and Bill Parker all expressed a sense of exasperation with the "slow, methodical" progress, as Rabinowitz described it.

But it was Parker, and his characteristic bombastic approach to commentary, that provided the straw that finally broke the back of Superintendent Shellie Feola's composure.

The two spoke over each other in an exchange which lasted more than 10 minutes with Feola at one point saying "you don't value our opinion, so it doesn't matter."

Other board members, in particular Vice President Matt Alexander, chided Parker for his approach, saying his confrontational manner is counter-productive and Parker replying he would not be silenced.

Alexander told Parker that his approach would continue to ensure that "nothing gets done."

I won't make you hunt for the video in the Storify of the Tweets below, although it is there for the stalwarts among you. Here it is:



In the end, veteran board member Robert Lindgren settle jarred nerves by pointing out the administration had done exactly what the board had asked, but perhaps not as quickly as some would have liked.

There were several other things of import that occurred at the meeting, including the adoption of new grading standards which several of our devoted followers Tweeted about through the course of the evening, but which was adopted without much fanfare.

The board also accepted the resignation of the teacher and baseball coach currently facing charges for having sex with a student in between his bachelor party and wedding, and fired the substitute who was captured on video slapping a student at the middle school.

There was also some interesting comments about the board's use of social media, in particular Rabinowitz's PGSD Discussion page on Facebook, and the appropriateness of keeping it up.

Its a decision he said is his alone to make, and he will make is soon.

You can read about all that and more in the many, many, many Tweets below.

Taxes, Dollars and Tax Dollars

More evidence that the Pottstown Schol Board is not yet set on adopting a town-wide tax break for those who improve commercial property, was made plain during Thursday night's discussion of the proposed LERTA district, which is likely to be tabled Monday.

Board Vice President Andrew Kefer, who followed in the footsteps of the now resigned Judyth Zahora by running the meeting from a speaker phone, said discussion of the matter at a recent finance committee meeting was "divisive."

Board member Thomas Hylton indicated that he has done some research on LERTAs, which stands for Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance, and found there are many varieties.

He said he would like more information, "in writing," from the borough and Steve Bamford, who, as executive director of PAID, is the borough's de-facto economic development director and an advocate for the enactment of the LERTA.

Hylton's call for more detail was echoed by Polly Weand and Mary-Beth Bacallao, the last of whom advocated for goals and a way to measure the effectiveness of the program if enacted.

Bamford said while there is no statewide analysis of the program, a recent conference of the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission did address the matter and offered up several case studies, which locally included Quakertown and Caln.

The board also looked favorably on adopting, as it always has in the past, a resolution pledging not to exceed the state tax index when adopting next year's budget.

This year's index is 3.4 percent, the highest Pottstown has ever seen, said Business Manager Linda Adams.

The board members present -- only five if you include Keefer's telephonic presence -- tastefully resisted the temptation to comment on following arcane state-imposed budget procedures at a time when the state is midway through its fourth month of being late with its own budget.

Do as I say, not as I do I suppose.

The board also heard a quick presentation on a plan to re-finance just under $10 million of its $13 million debt in order to collect nearly $400,000 in interest savings.

Here are the Tweets from the meeting, along with a few helpful links to Mercury articles which offer  background on the matters under discussion.

Pottsgrove Tax Hike Stops Short of 0%

The Pottsgrove School board stopped short of enacting a $63.9 million budget that did not raise taxes Tuesday night.

Instead, they adopted a $63, 916,463 budget that raises taxes a little bit, under 1 percent in fact.

The final budget the board adopted will raise taxes by .2 mills, or .55 percent.

For a home assessed at $120,000, the district median, it means a tax hike of $24 in the 2015-16 school year.

A number of assumptions and financial maneuvering was requited to get to this point, including the use of $200,000 of district surplus funds; the assumption that the state budget, whenever its finalized, will provide an additional $100,000 in funding over this year; and using $80,000 of capital fund money to buy one of three new school buses the district plans to buy next year.

There was some spirited rhetoric required to get to this resolution with board member Matt Alexander calling School Board President Justin Valentine a "hypocrite" for invoking the Sunshine Law in explaining why he had not responded to suggestions from Alexander on ways to cut spending.

Board member Rick Rabinowitz cast the only set of votes against the budget motions, arguing consistently that a combination of factors -- including more than $500,000 saved in a bond re-financing approved Tuesday night -- made this the only year a 05 tax hike could be achieved.

Another $205,000 in revenues or savings added to the new budget would have driven the tax hike down to zero.

But the budget was not the only major action taken Tuesday night.

The board also approved the change from a 7-point grading scale to a 10-point grading scale.

You can read all about it in the extremely long collection of Tweets from an extremely long school board meeting.

Pottsgrove Inches Toward Zero

The Pottsgrove School Board, which devoted its entire meeting Tuesday night to budget discussion, appeared to inch closer to not raising taxes in the coming school year.

After adopted a proposed final $64.3 million budget two weeks ago that would raises taxes by 2.4 percent, but which board member insisted "means nothing," they got down to brass tacks Tuesday.

The upshot of the meeting was that by guesstimating that:

A) the additional $800,000 or more the district would receive under Gov. Tom Wolf's proposed budget would, by a more conservative estimate, come closer to $200,000 by the time it exits the Republican-controlled General Assembly;

B) that taking another $200,000 from the nearly $400,000 the district received in delayed state reimbursement for the Ringing Rocks Elementary School construction project and,

C) Taking full advantage of the $400,000-plus in savings from  an unprecedented 11 teacher retirements and another savings of equal measure from a second good year in health care claims;

The board could whittle the 2.4 percent property tax hike down to .5 percent.

Board member Rick Rabintowitz led the charge for finding another $200,000 in line-by-line budget savings that could get the tax hike down to zero.

He also argued that there were enough major state initiatives in play -- property tax reform, pension reform, charter school funding reform -- that  a zero tax hike budget could be achieved without putting the district on a slippery slope of pilfering its reserve funds for short-term gain.

No vote was taken, but the path toward a lowered tax hike -- particularly given Business Manager David Nester's tentative endorsement of the path -- seems likely to veteran school board and budget observers.

Here are the Tweets from last night's meeting.

Pottstown Schools Eye 0% Tax Hike ... Next Year

Blogger's Note: OK, so those of you who read these things and have grown used to me putting notes into the "Storify" of my posts to fill in the blanks between the Tweets, but that function was not working tonight.

Also, it wasn't my idea but the meeting resulted in the lead of this story, visible up there in the headline, being buried at the bottom. Rest assured, it will be right up on top when I write it up for the newspaper.

So a few notes:

• At one point I Tweeted that nine positions would be cut under the proposed school budget and at another that 11 would be cut. The right number is 11, nine classroom assistants, one secretary and one teacher.
• The African author to whom Franklin Principal Kevin Downes was referring is Wingari Maathai, who won a Nobel prize and fostered the "green belt" movement in Africa.
• I didn't mention him by name, but as many of you know, the chairman of the finance committee is Board Vice President Dennis Wausnock and he listened in from a hospital bed as he is pretty ill.
• So first of all, send him your best wishes, he has been a public servant for a very, very long time, and second of all, Twitter didn't give me room to put Wausnock's name in the Tweet. We're all pulling for you Dennis.
• And although I couldn't resist putting in that board member Andrew Keefer works for a foreclosure law firm, I had intended to flesh out his comments in the notes. What he also said was "PSERS, debt service and building roofs, that's what this comes down to. Those are the three reasons the budget is increasing this year. The district continues to get more blood out of a stone but we have no wiggle room."

That said, remember, to click the "Read More" blue story bar at the bottom for the juicy stuff, here is the Storify:

Of Pottsgrove Grades and Numbers

Toroney: Report Paved the Way to No Tax Hike

Borough Council President Stephen Toroney credited a 2009 consultant report on the borough’s finances for starting Pottstown down the road to what he considers a landmark achievement, that was made official Monday with the adoption of a $38.5 million that does not raise borough taxes for the first time in recent memory.

Councilman Mark Gibson, who, as a paid driver for the Empire Fire Company could be said to benefit financially by voting for the budget, which makes contributions to the fire companies, abstained from the vote.

But the budget, officially balanced at $38,530,729, otherwise received unanimous support from the remainder of council.

Also adopted with Gibson’s abstention, was the tax rate ordinance.

It is broken down as follows:
• General fund — 6.71500 mills;
• Debt fund — .55000 mills;
• Library fund — .19700 mills;
• Street light fund — .33700 mills;
• Parks and Recreation fund — .90600 mills;
• Fire house maintenance fund — 1.50700 mills;

Council President Stephen Toroney

This leaves the 2013 total real estate millage in the borough at 10.212 mills, the same as 2012.

For the average residential property in the borough — which is assessed at around $75,000 — that works out to an annual bill of $765.90.

Toroney thanked Finance Director Janice Lee for her hard work.
“It’s an early Christmas present for the citizens and taxpayers of our town,” he said.

“We’ve been working toward this since 2010,” said Councilman Dan
Weand, who chairs council’s finance and administration committee.

“It took many years to dig ourselves out of the hole we were in,” Toroney said, which prompted Borough Manager Mark Flanders to remark, “we’re not out of it yet.”

Lee declined to take all the credit. “It’s just evidence of everybody working together,” she said. “It was a team effort.”

“I think the start was the EIP report,” Toroney said in reference to a report paid for partly through the state’s Early Intervention Program for municipalities in financial trouble.

The 141-page report was written by an Ohio consulting firm named Management Partners and contained the startling prediction that unless Pottstown radically changed the way its borough and authority government is run, that borough property taxes would jump by 75 percent; water rates by 25 percent and sewer rates by 19 percent in the next five years.

In addition to there being no tax hike in 2013, there will also be no increase in water and sewer rates.

The report highlighted a number of looming problems, not the least of which has been the steady drop in Pottstown’s total assessed property values.

The report contained 122 recommendations designed to save $370,000 a year and was cited as the primary reason for borough lay-offs that occurred subsequently.

Among the other recommendations was a suggestion to merge the public works department and the borough authority.

While that has not happened exactly, Flanders told council that in 2013 he intends to consolidate the maintenance of the water and sewer treatment plants into a single department “and make a stand-alone maintenance department called ‘Utility Maintenance’ that will do work on both plants on a work-order basis.”

He said that department will be overseen by Brent Wagner, the utilities coordinator.

“If we hadn’t had the EIP report, we wouldn’t have had a plan and we wouldn’t be here,” Toroney said.

“The EIP report gave us that blueprint.”